Game session postmortem #1

So we had our first actual 'play' session for my new campaign. For myself, it felt like a bit of a rocky takeoff but soared after that. Like any book, movie or composition of music, the beginning is the hardest part. To quote one of my favorite novels: "A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct."

And it all started with a McGuffin.

One of the players has this artifact. Something that by his own definition was ‘dangerous and incredibly valuable’ and ‘he was keeping it to protect others.’ The “glowing ball of doom” as the other players started calling it and how the PC came into possession of it became the focus of the entire game session.

I had originally planned the first game session to test a number of the conflict systems I had drafted into the system; how to handle chases, fights, arguments, etc. I had 3x5 note cards with roughed out antagonists, numbers to roll for and against, etc. Since the player with the McGuffin had the most immediate character ‘hook,’ we started rolling against his investigative skills to see what he could learn about the doohickey. Two close-shaves later, he realized that he wasn't going to get anywhere without the help of the other characters, and so roped them into a scheme to acquire the materials and tools necessary to safely explore further. The potential for profit based on being the first group to understand and perhaps harness what the McGuffin represented got the rest of the party involved.

I will hand it to the other players: they immediately took to the open-ended challenge. Asking questions, devising their own understanding of how the world worked and what the steps they could take were. The tick on my end was to answer their questions halfway: I’d give them information, but not answers; what they needed to ask more questions, which in turn helped them to decide what actions to take to pursue those answers.

i.e. Q: There were six people who went with that PC on the mission where he found the McGuffin… where are they and why aren't they involved? A: They aren't involved because… they’re all dead or in comas after ‘the incident.’

One of my fears of being out of practice was that I wouldn't be fast enough on my feet to deal with questions and actions taken by the players. Since this game session was almost entirely narrative in its content, there weren't any opportunities where being unprepared with system mechanics to become a problem.

I did, however, learn a few things about being prepared.

One: NPC names. I’m horrible with names. So far the named NPCs are “Dr. Bob” and “Burke”, the company man (yes, after Paul Riser’s character from Aliens, and yes, pretty much the same character). Names have power: who are you going to remember better? “Dr. Bob” or “Alejandro ‘The Spider’ Wing-Chen”? In a massively multicultural setting like Eclipse Phase, names can be real ethnic mashups. Not to mention monikers for AI’s, uplifts and so on. To that end, I updated my copy of Inspiration Pad, and wrote a little script to generate mixed-ethnicity names on the fly for me. Some I will pre-generate and keep in a list. Need a name? Take one and scratch it off. I hope to also keep the generator script on hand next time so I can make more as needed. Also for that end, I’m working on scripts for generating details about habitats, corporations, ‘factions’ and so on.

Two: Have stock challenges prepared. The 3x5 card concept seemed to work well; there’s room to write the particulars of that challenge (dice to roll, numbers to beat, etc), but also space to track progress against that challenge (if it takes multiple rolls, hits and so on). Things like bypassing a door lock, base ‘goons’ should the PC’s get into a fight, etc.

And speaking of mechanical challenges: I will probably have to take a serious look at my conflict systems for TURK. My original concepts had detailed sub-systems for arguments, duels, firefights, chases and ‘projects’ for anything else. However Players generally aren't conscious about the system and are more focused on the context of those conflicts. Thus, simpler is better.

Ideally there should be one dice mechanic and one or two models for adjudicating conflict. FATE has three models: Challenges (character vs fixed obstacles), Contests between actors (debates, chases, races) and Conflicts between actors (arguments, duels, firefights, wars). Perhaps that could work for TURK?

Something to ponder further (and in future posts).

So to sum up: it was a good session. The next session will start from where we left off, so no problems getting the ball rolling, so to speak. I also have several ‘homework’ items to provide the players (information they sent requests for and I said I would get it to them later since what they wanted to know wasn't immediately crucial). The story is afoot, and we will see where it takes us!

Context before mechanics, or "Setting before dice"

So there's this setting idea I've been cooking up for many many years. It's grown, evolved, been scrapped, reincarnated, buried in soft peat for years then redistributed as firestarters, and so on. Part of the problem was that it kept changing based on which game system I was in the mood to play.

Which is nonsense. Setting is setting, story should be divorced from mechanics.

So as I continue to write up this setting, I'm ignoring thoughts about mechanics. The setting is broad enough and deep enough it can be played multiple ways, and the mechanics chosen will help set the mood and style of play.

As mentioned in my previous post about my current game campaign, several game companies are releasing their product under one or another form of a Creative Commons license, meaning that players can take the setting and adapt to other game engines as desired, or write and publish supplementary information without licensing. Posthuman Studio's excellent Eclipse Phase being one example and the Symbiosis art book, by Steven Sanders, is another example of setting without any mechanical context. Which means one day we may see GURPS Symbiosis as well as d20 versions of it and others.

So in a similar vein, and not to drive myself further insane, my development of Empyrean will follow , suit. I will develop it first as a Setting then start writing specific game mechanics for it.

My new game

I've been quiet here a while now, but not inactive. In fact, I've started my first campaign in years. And not only is it the first time I'll be behind the GM's screen in a long time, it's also the first time running with this particular group of players, the first time with this particular setting AND the first time using a game engine still in development!

No pressure :)

The setting for the campaign is Eclipse Phase. I gotta hand it to the guys at Posthuman Studios; they've done a great job at tackling a complex concept and deliver a ton of game books and online content that is educational and inspiring. Their products are of awesome quality, but they also happily share their setting with their playerbase, having released their game under a Creative Commons license, giving permission to player groups to add to, adapt and otherwise make their own Eclipse Phase games they way they want to (so long as it's not for profit). That very... infological freedom makes the game I have started possible.

You see, instead of the core EP rules as written I am using a game engine I have been working on for the last couple of years in my copious spare time. Taking the core concepts from Roll and Keep, I've been calling my variant TURK: True Universal Roll and Keep engine.

I got the idea to make a TURK:EP game while I was thinking about how EP separates EGO and MORPH that about how Roll and Keep dice mechanics might be a good fit to emulate the EGO determining the dice you throw, but your Morph being the cap on how many you get to keep.

Currently TURK exists as a thoroughly deconstructed set of concepts and principles for handling action, characters and so on. This Eclipse Phase game will be one of the first manifestations of TURK concepts into an actual game. As thought-experiments I've been keeping ideas on applying TURK to many other settings/campaigns/ideas. Some of them may make the light of day here on this blog... *Note to self: if TURK works well, contact Alderac Entertainment*

So far a couple of lessons already learned:

1) You may know your game engine, or at least the intent of your draft rules, but having player feedback is invaluable. Just like any proofreading catches gaffs, inconsistencies, logical gaps and plain typos and misspellings; having someone read and ask questions about your game mechanics is great feedback on where your writing is weak, examples may be needed and so on. It also helps that one of your players is a professional writer and editor *grins*

2) Be prepared with an initial story to tell. Especially with a brand new setting the GM really has a lot to do with setting the themes, mood, tone and feel to feed the player's imaginations and in turn inspire them. My intent is to run a game that strongly follows the player-characters concepts and desired, but first they need a taste of what the world is like. This one I am struggling with at the moment, but the once-a-month schedule is working in my favor: plenty of time to get inspired, write and plot.

3) Everyone having DropBox and Google Drive accounts is a great way to share core setting and game rule information. I was able to share with my players both original setting information as well as my draft (and revised) documents on the rules we're going to play by. It also serves as an online backup for things like character sheets, campaign notes and the like.

More posts to come on this game!

Long absence ended!

Apologies for the long absence. The holiday season (heck, the last quarter of the year!) is an especially hectic and busy time, but now that 2013 has officially begun, it's time to start blogging again!

Can I just say, this makes me really excited?

http://www.gamespot.com/news/cyberpunk-2077-detailed-6398527

Roll and Keep: L5R and 7thSea

7th Sea and Legend of the Five Rings got be back into roleplaying at the turn of the millennium, and the core of those rules -Roll and Keep- has been my favorite and go-to-engine since. Role and Keep is elegant, dramatic and flexible and I love it.

There are two released games that use Roll and Keep; 7thSea and Legend of the Five Ring. L5R is a pseudo-Japanese mythology setting with samurai and shugenga (wizards) and concepts like high honor and clan station. There is also a very popular L5R CCG, but I don't play it. 7thSea is a swashbuckling alternative world where the countries of Europa all reaching their Renaissance at the same time; where bloodline sorcery vie for power with the growing fields of mad science and technology.

The core dice mechanic, by which the system gets its name, is a dice-pool system with a twist. You create a pool of d10's from Traits and Skills but when you roll them you may only keep a certain number of them, adding the results of kept dice together to determine your total roll. By default the Trait score is the number of dice you get to keep and the dice from your skills are 'unkept'; this means your Traits are universally more important but are harder to raise to high levels. Skills are easier to improve and grant additional boons that unskilled characters don't get.

7thSea has Brutes and Henchmen, which are lesser NPC's, used to challenge or assist the Heroes and Villains in your games. Brutes are very simple, stats-wise, which makes the GM's job all the easier; you don't roll or track damage against Brutes, if you successfully hit one, he's out. Unfortunately Brutes travel in packs (Brute Squads). Henchmen have the same Traits and Skills that Player Characters have, are tougher than Brutes but aren't as hardy as PC's. 7thSea favors player characters as heroes. The worst that can happen from a fight is to get Knocked Out, and the GM is encouraged not to kill PC's, but instead have them wake up afterwards in captivity or in the midst of the Villain's devious-yet-subtly-flawed-death-trap.

Legend of the Five Rings, inspired by the book "Book of the Five Rings" by Miyamoto Musashi and Japanese mythology, has a different feel than 7thSea, but is no less dramatic. L5R characters are first defined by their clan, family and school of training. L5R characters start fairly similar to each other, but can quickly grow into distinct characters. L5R has two social traits for your character's Glory and Status, representing reputation and authority, which fluctuate quickly during play.L5R is a gritter setting and system than 7thSea, but glorious for all the same. If you're a fan of Kurosawa films and Japanese mythology, L5R is great. In addition, the canonical setting of L5R's Rokugan is continually evolving in response to events in the official CCG tournaments, which is an interesting idea even if it leads to occasional oddities.

I've enjoy the Roll and Keep engine so much, I am working on my own variant which is generic enough to handle just about any setting. More on this to come...

Burning Wheel games

(This post is about the core Burning Wheel mechanics. I'll make specific posts about Burning Empires and Mouse Guard later.)

Burning Wheel really turns roleplaying on its head in many ways, and since I picked it up, it's really changed my views on both storytelling and game mechanics. I love it and hate it for the same reason; like watching something both fascinating and disturbing, Burning Wheel sticks in your head and forever alters your perceptions. Picking up and experiencing Burning Wheel has forever infected my view of gaming and I regret nothing.

On the face of things, Burning Wheel uses a straight-forward dice pool mechanic, but it's Burning Wheel's conflict engine where things really shine. BW is both really open about story-mechanics, yet ruthlessly competitive when it comes to conflict mechanics and the consequences of choices. Also, and perhaps more importantly, Burning Wheel makes failure interesting (Mouse Guard especially pushes this concept).

Burning Wheels conflict engine uses a core concept of secretly scripting actions in advance, then revealing them one at a time and resolving them rock-paper-scissors style. Attack versus Defend? Whomever rolls higher succeeds. Attack vs. Attack? Both sides could succeed or fail, independently of the the other's success or failure, and so on.

Burning Wheel fantasy has three types of conflicts: Fight!, Range-and-Cover and the Duel of Wits. While Fight and Range-and-Cover clearly deal with martial battle, the Duel of Wits covers social conflicts. Both sides in a DOW start with a pool of 'Disposition' points, representing their initial position and strength of argument. Exchanges of Points, Rebuttals and Obfuscations whittle away at your opponent's Disposition. The side that looses it's last Disposition point looses the argument! The winner, however, may have to make concessions based on how close to zero their Disposition was brought to zero! The essential conflict mechanic scales well, and allows for narrative control over the context and feel of the story.

Burning Empires, the sci-fi BW setting, adds several more conflict types: the Firefight (Range and Cover writ large and with a more strategic point-of-view) and the Infection-level campaign conflict which handles events of planetary importance.

Mouse Guard introduced a streamlined version of this core conflict engine concept, which allows for settling just about any form of contest or conflict, with only four 'move' options (Attack, Defend, Maneuver and Feint). Which skills are tested for each Action depends on the nature of the conflict. Adding new conflicts is easy: simple define which skills are tested for each Action.

Unlike most other RPGs -which traditionally require a ton of creative world-building ahead of time on the part of the Game Master/Storyteller- Burning Wheel thrives on starting with simple world concepts and filling out the details and world facts through character creation and in actual play. Instead of asking "What do I know about (X)?" players instead say "My character knows (X) to be true," and then rolls to see how right/wrong they are. I love this idea, because it enables player and character investment in the game and the world, which makes for richer stories and deeper attachment to character and world.

Character creation is a process of choosing Lifepaths that affect the character's age, skills learned and traits acquired. Want a skilled, experienced character? Then accept that they will either be older, or heavily affected by the tough life experiences they've gone through to get that good. You character will pick up traits and habits that may seem negative or inhibiting, but these play into Burning Wheels drama economy (called Artha), you want complicated and challenged characters because their flaws and failures actually fuel the Artha economy. The Stocks (races) and Lifepaths available to a campaign also feed the world narrative and help to define setting.

Circles, which is a social attribute, is how well socially connected your character is. Instead of taking fixed contacts or allies before play begins, you can test your Circles to see if you can find someone with the skils/knowledge you're looking for. Failing that test doesn't mean you don't find them; instead they may hate you, or some other side-quest your character needs to meet. Circles is a brilliant idea and I've considered adding to other game engines.

Character Advancement is based on testing your character's abilities. There are no Experience Points, no Levels; killing one hundred orcs doesn't automatically make your character better at cooking. Want to improve an aspect of your character? You have to test it and push it beyond what's safe or routine. At higher skill ranks, you have to try things that are patently impossible to succeed. This is where the Artha economy really helps; you need the help of Artha to improve abilities beyond a certain rank. Tracking the number of tests for every skill and ability is a little taxing, but you only count the ones that actually count towards advancing that skill.

On the downsides, Burning Wheel is very different, ruthless and character-lethal system. It's not difficult to get your character maimed or killed in the fantasy and sci-fi settings that have thus far been published. Mouse Guard is different, but character death is still possible. The essentials of Burning Wheel's conflict system(s) are challenging to grasp at first, especially to old-school gamers who are traditional in their experience with gaming.